The present disclosure relates to the rendering of complex characters for display on multi-tone devices. A multi-tone device is a device capable of displaying a range of tones greater than two. Examples of multi-tone devices include grayscale and color devices.
A complex character is a graphical token or symbol that contains more than one vertical or horizontal stroke (commonly referred to as a stem). Examples of complex characters include Chinese hanzi, Japanese kanji, and Korean hanja and hangul characters. Other examples of complex characters include Western and non-Western characters that have multiple strokes.
When rendering a complex character for display on an output device, it is beneficial to consider the white spaces of the character. These white spaces (commonly referred to as counters) are defined as the areas between the stems of the character. By balancing the widths of these counters, an improved representation of the complex character can be achieved.
Conventional techniques for balancing the counters of a complex character in a mono-chromatic, non-grayscale rendering process are not generally compatible with a complex character rendered for display on a multi-tone device. Conventional techniques for aligning the stems of a character according to a stem-alignment policy do not generally consider the importance of balancing the counters of a character.
A technique for balancing the counters of a complex character in a mono-chromatic, non-grayscale rendering process is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,103 (the '103 patent) assigned to Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif. A technique for rendering a character for display on a grayscale device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,063 (the '063 patent) assigned to Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif. The '063 patent aligns the stems of the character according to a stem-alignment policy.